Lime Posset with Toasted Coconut Shortbread

Sometimes simple is best.

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Today’s social media is overloaded with crazy complex desserts. We’ve all seen them: the entremet with seven different layers of mousse, cake, and ganache; the pristine plated dessert dotted with gels and creams and caramel shards. In the middle of this, it’s easy to forget how amazing a crisp shortbread cookie can be. Or a dish of pudding.

When I started thinking about this recipe, I pictured a bowl a creamy lime posset dotted with three perfect spirals of whipped cream, interspersed with shards of coconut lace tuile and showered with toasted coconut. In my mind, the rich creaminess of the posset would contrast beautifully with the lightness of the cream and the crispness of the tuile, resulting a perfectly balanced dish.

Then I tasted the posset. Creamy. Light. Sharply acidic and sweet, but not too sweet, just like a perfectly balanced curd.

The posset was delicious just as it was. If I tried to pile too many things on top, I would ruin what was so amazing in the first place.

Fast-forward to the finished dish:

Eventually, I decided to keep the whipped cream and add a little lime zest to accent the lime in the posset. I left the tuile behind, but I did whip up a quick batch of toasted coconut shortbread to be served on the side. These shortbread are not essential to the finished dish, but they are both delicious and simple to make if you have the time. If you don’t, the posset is delicious on its own.

Sometimes simple is best. If you have any doubts, take one bite of this posset. The proof will be in the pudding!

Enjoy!

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Note on Naming:

I ran in mental laps trying to decide what to call this dessert. In the UK it is a posset, but I worried that “posset” would be too strange and mean nothing to most Americans. Hard as I tried, though, I couldn’t think of another title that would be both familiar to us and accurate to the dish. There really isn’t any American label to describe this type of dessert.

In the end, I decided to follow the spirit of simplicity and call it what it is a posset. Why over-complicate? When you eat it, you’re not going to be worrying about what it’s called!

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Lime Posset

(Serves 4)

For the posset:

475 mL heavy cream (~2 cups)*

130 grams sugar (~2/3 cup)

2 tsp lime zest, plus additional for garnish

90 mL lime juice (~6 tbsp, from ~3 limes)

For the whipped cream:

120 mL cold heavy cream (~½ cup)

Powdered sugar to taste

Method

For the posset:

Pour cream into a medium pot and add sugar and lime zest into a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and continue to boil, stirring all the time, until the mixture has reduced to about 2 cups of liquid. (You don’t need to be super precise; just guesstimate.) Remove the pot from heat and stir in the lime juice.

Let the posset sit at room temperature for 20-30 minutes, or until it has thickened and a skin has formed on the top, then strain through a mesh sieve to remove the zest and any skin that has formed.

Pour into the strained posset into serving bowls (ramekins, wine glasses, tea cups, whatever you want to use) and refrigerate for at least three hours. Garnish with whipped cream and lime zest.

For the whipped cream:

Beat cold heavy cream using a hand blender at medium speed until the cream begins to stiffen up. Sprinkle in powdered sugar, a teaspoon at a time, until the whipped cream is as sweet as you want, then beat until the whipped cream holds peaks. Be careful not to overwhip!

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Toasted Coconut Shortbread

(Makes 20-24 cookies)

40 grams shredded unsweetened coconut, divided (~½ cup)

113 grams unsalted butter, room temperature (½ cup, 1 stick)

¼ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt

56 grams granulated sugar (~generous ¼ cup)

170 grams all-purpose flour (~1 cup plus 5 tbsp)

Special Equipment: rolling pin

Method

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Spread out flaked coconut on the baking sheet and bake for 6 minutes, or until golden brown (remove from the oven and stir with a spatula after 3 minutes to ensure even toasting.) Remove from the oven and cool.

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter with salt until smooth. Add sugar and beat until light. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

In a small bowl, combine flour and 30 grams toasted coconut. Add half of this mixture into the creamed butter-sugar and mix until just combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the other half of the dry mixture. Mix until just combined.

Dump shortbread dough out onto plastic wrap and form into a rectangle about ½ inch thick. Sprinkle with remaining 10 grams toasted coconut. Wrap tightly and refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour.

Remove the dough block from the refrigerator, and roll out between two sheets of parchment paper, until the shortbread is ¼-inch thick. (It is helpful to temper the cold dough by tapping it lightly with the rolling pin before trying to actually roll it out. This will help prevent the dough from splitting.)

Using a 1 ½-inch ring cutter, cut out small circles and transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet, spacing each cookie about 1-inch from the next. Leftover dough scraps can be rerolled and cut out. Keep in mind, though, that the more you roll out the dough, the more you will develop the gluten in the dough, and the tougher the finished cookies will be.)

Refrigerate the cookies on the sheet pans while you preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Bake shortbread for 14 minutes or until golden and smelling toasty. Cool completely on the pan before transferring to an air-tight container.

*Volumetric measurements are estimates based on general accepted equivalents. This recipe has not been tested with them.

Originally posted April 3, 2020.